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Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic is a state in Europe. Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia, and has to countries enclaved inside it, San Marino and Vatican City. Due to its shape, Italy is often referred to as ‘the Boot’. History Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries Italy became a republic after a referendum held on 2 June 1946, a day celebrated since as Republic Day. This was also the first time that Italian women were entitled to vote. King Victor Emmanuel III's son, King Umberto II, was forced to abdicate and exiled. The Republican Constitution was approved on 1 January 1948. Under the Treaty of Peace with Italy of 1947, most of Julian March was lost to Yugoslavia and, later, the Free Territory of Trieste was divided between the two states. Italy also lost all its colonial possessions, formally ending the Italian Empire. Fears in the Italian electorate of a possible Communist takeover proved crucial for the first universal suffrage electoral outcome on 18 April 1948, when the Christian Democrats, under the leadership of Alcide De Gasperi, obtained a landslide victory. Consequently, in 1949 Italy became a member of NATO. The Marshall Plan helped to revive the Italian economy which, until the late 1960s, enjoyed a period of sustained economic growth commonly called the "Economic Miracle". From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, the country experienced the Years of Lead, a period characterised by economic crisis, widespread social conflicts and terrorist massacres carried out by opposing extremist groups. The Years of Lead culminated in the assassination of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978 and the Bologna railway station massacre in 1980, where 85 people died. During Bettino Craxi's government, the economy recovered and Italy became the world's fifth largest industrial nation, gaining entry into the G-7 Group. However, as a result of his spending policies, the Italian national debt skyrocketed during the Craxi era, soon passing 100% of the GDP. The Communists reorganised as a social-democratic force. During the 1990s and the 2000s, center-right (dominated by media magnate Silvio Berlusconi) and center-left coalitions (led by university professor Romano Prodi) alternatively governed the country, which entered a prolonged period of economic stagnation. In 2008 Italy was hit by the Great Recession, being severely affected by hit. From 2008 to 2015, the country suffered 42 months of GDP recession. The economic crisis was one of the main problems that forced Berlusconi to resign in 2011. Intervention in Algeria "See Full Article: Second Algerian Civil War" With the beginning of the civil war in Algeria, Italy contributed 7,000 troops to Algiers to support the government and prevent the NAC from further expanding its territory. In July 2024, Italian troops were involved in the First Battle of Algiers, defeating an APILA offensive to capture the capital alongside Spain and France. In September, Italian troops refused to help support government forces in Bejaia. In January 2025, anti-war protests spread to Italian cities, demanding that the government withdraw its forces from Algeria, and in February, two Italian troops were killed by a car bomb in Algiers, causing Italian Prime Minister Debora Serracchiani to withdraw all Italian troops from Algeria. Withdrawal from the Euro Greece’s ejection from the European Union caused the stability of the euro currency to collapse, leading to Marine le Pen withdrawing from the currency. Spain, Ireland and Greece to also withdraw. Germany moved to keep the remaining Eurozone countries within the currency. Italy remained in the currency until March 2026, when the country withdrew from the euro, announcing the re-instatement of the lira. San Marino and the Vatican City announced they would also use the new Italian lira. Government and Politics The President of Italy is the head of state, elected for a single seven year term by the Parliament. The Prime Minister, officially the President of the Council of Minister, is the head of government and effectively exercises executive power. The Parliament of Italy is the legislature, and is bicameral consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate of the Republic. Administrative Divisions Italy is divided into 20 regions, five of which are autonomous. These are: * Sardinia * Sicily * Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol * Firuli-Venezia Giulia These 20 regions are subdivided into 9 metropolitan cities, 101 provinces and 8047 municipalities. Foreign Relations Italy is a founding member of both the European Union and NATO, and was admitted to the United Nations in 1955. Italy is also a member of the G-7 and G-30 economic forums, as well as a series of other international organisations. Italy supports multilateral international politics and was a key mediator in the Vienna Accords that ended the Second Yugoslav War, as well as having contributed troops to UN Peacekeeping Missions in Somalia, Mozambique, East Timor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Lebanon. Italy is also one of the largest financers of the Palestinian National Authority. Economy Italy is famous for producing a wide variety of high quality agricultural produce and industrial goods. Milan is a center of the fashion industry along with Paris. Italy produces expensive high quality machinery and automobiles. Italy was hit hard by the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis of the 2010s but fared better than Greece and Spain due to its diverse economy and advanced manufacturing sector. After Seimens linked the Pan-Asian High Speed Rail System to Milan in the early 2020s, the Italian economy benefitted from increased exports of Italian products to the boom economies of China, South East Asia and India by land. This became even more true in 2026 after the new Italian lira made Italian exports to Asia and many other parts of the world much cheaper. Italian exports to Germany and other nations in northern Europe also increased since the euro was stronger than the lira, contributing to a period of renewed Italian economic growth. Category:Nations Category:Europe Category:European Union Category:NATO Category:OECD Category:G-30